2011-02-16 Calgary Robot Omnibot Robot
I bought this original 1980's Tomy Omnibot from EBay. While I waited for it to arrive, I planned out what I was going to do with it.
Well, it arrived yesterday! So I jumped right at it...
- 1 x EZ-B Bluetooth Robot Controller [link]
- 2 x Servo for arms
- 1 x Servo for head
- 1 x Wireless camera
I took it apart and washed it in the dishwasher. It had a lot of dirt from the previous owner. It was rather disgusting, actually.
Once it was clean, I painted it white with plastic paint and primer.
Then I started hacking away at it; adding new features. I added servos for the arms, so they can move now. I also made the head rotate left to right with a servo. I then added a wireless camera between its eyes (looks like a nose lol). I put a wireless microphone in its chest. I used a dual HBridge to control the standard motor and gearset.
I have a lot of plans for the programming in this robot, and a few new sensors also. I will be adding a ultrasonic ping sensor, and IR floor sensors shortly. I will also be modifying the front display panel to fit an LCD.
Currently, the programming is a collection of functions from my other robots. I have added:
- Voice recognition
- Visual recognition, color tracking and object tracking
- Voice synthesis
- Remote control
The hardware robot controller is the EZ-B. I used a bit of EZ-Builder for some of the demo, and the rest is a C# .Net application that uses the EZ-SDK.
Soon it will inherit my autonomous code, once the distance and IR sensors are added. I am exciting to have a robot to help around the house 
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